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FEATURE PRESENTATION SNK: THE ART OF GAMING NEWSLINE ZERO DIVIDE II, ENEMY ZERO,
OVER BLOOD, SPEED RACER COMIX SUPER STREET FIGHTER II: CAMMY, SAMURAI SHODOWN

THE MAGAZINE OF ELECTRONIC MANGA GAMING

NTEWSLINE - 1

ZERO DIVIDE II I

LUNAR: THE SILVER STAR
SPEED RACER

SUPER STREET FIGHT

SAMURAI SHODOWN

II: CAMMY

$4.95 US/f/$6.50 CAN

82009 01433

PLUS...

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IEATI

Ton

W: THE ART

roJnd WITH THE
OF T&E NEO-GEO

It of Lighting 3

iv 1 1 iv i i yv i\ n /v OTrno

NINJA MASTERS
SHIN OU KEN

i 'mat r

NAMCO AND BA

A FIERY INTERVIEW ON TEKKEN

THE LATEST GAMING ANIME, MANGA, AND NEWS DIRECTLY FROM JAPAN!

It's what they live for.

Against a dark and shifting 3-D landscape, the warriors of the twisted
underworld known as BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN 2™ await your return.

How do they know you’ll be back? Let’s just say it’s a gut feeling. As in the
first 360° go-round, the moves are lethal, the stages visceral and the
characters, wicked. And this time, the original avengers are joined by a
new crew of fighters. Like Tracy, the sexy cop gone bad;Verm, merciless
madman; and Chaos, a friendly fella who happens to swing a sickle.

All of ’em real keen to get to know you better. On every level.

So welcome back. And plan to stay awhile. Because here in
Battle Arena Toshinden 2, these forsaken foes aren’t just out to take

you down. They’re down to take you out.

http://www.playmatestoys.com

Battle Arena Toshinden-2 and its characters are trademarks of

Takara Co., Ltd ©Takara Co., Ltd. 1996 Programmed ©Tamsoft 16200 Trojan Way

the PS logo are trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment. (714) 562-1743

TAKARA

Samurai Shodown ©1995 SNK/Kyoichi Nanatsuki/Yuki Miyoshi, Panzer Dragoon II Zwei ©Sega
Arc the Lad II ©Sony Computer Entertainent, Inc.

FEATURE

PRESENTATION

contents

7 A

SNK: THE ART OF GAMING

The company best known for Samurai Shodown and Fatal Fury was
in arcades when the Neo*Geo was a gleam in a designer's eye.
Gameplay is the watchword as long-historied SNK prepares to move
to a new system — and start practicing their art with a new R&D team
on American shores.

8 POLYGONS. FIGHTERS AND SPIES

It's "industrial espionage" to see the prized developers at SNK's
headquarters in Japan — but who are the people who've made
more 2D fighting games than anyone, and what's the next project
on their minds? Shoichiro Takatsu of SNK Japan talks with us
about Ninja Masters, Samurai Shodown HPG and the plans for
and problems of 3D.

10 OUT OF THE ARCADES

With theatrically successful anime, and half a dozen manga titles
running at once, few games have more successful spin-off stories
than SNK's. All you ever wanted to know about the King of
Fighters manga, the Art of Fighting anime and more, but couldn't
read enough Japanese to find out!

SPECIAL REPORT: TO NAMCO AND BACK

Game On! Japan takes a trip to speak to the makers of the Tekken
series. Find out where the devil the original Tekken came from — and
how that led to Tekken 2.

MANGA

COM

16 INTRODUCTIONS

SUPER STREET FIGHTER II: CAMMY

A deranged champion captures Guile, and it's up to Cammy
to save him from the tournament masters of Battlerave. But
can she silence the twisted sponsor, Sang Froid, if he knows
the truth about her past? The FIRST EVER APPEARANCE IN
ENGLISH of the manga by MASAHIKO NAKAHIRA!

SAMURAI SHODOWN

Surrounded by the Shiranui Force, the heroes' situation
couldn't get worse — unless one claw-handed goblin and the
Dark Disciple himself were to appear! A victim is taken in
the FIRST EVER APPEARANCE IN ENGLISH of the manga
by KYOICHI NANATSUKI and YUKI MIYOSHI!

P3 ;1 Si;®

FROM THE EDITOR

By Jason Thompson

iHiii

NEWSLINE

ZERO DIVIDE 2 • LUNAR: THE DIRECTOR'S CUT* ARC THE
LAD II • OVER BLOOD • SPEED RACER. . . If it's on the way
from Japan to the States, it has to travel along the Newsline.

1 5 JAPAN’S TOP TEN VIDEO GAMES

All systems. All players.

72 PLAY TESTS

Reviewed this month: TEKKEN 2, PANZER DRAGOON II ZWEI,
ROBO PIT, TOKYO HIGHWAY BATTLE.

78 GAME OVER!

The Feminine Mystique?? Though some game mags claim 99%
male readership, it's amazing how well women have broken
into the citadel of male-dominated gaming. They're not playing,
however; they're in the games. Chun Li speaks on page 78!

80 UPCOMING

Next issue: Summer with Square!

■. I: Ip'

GAME ON! USA

from the editor

Split

Personalities

S ystem wars are exciting periods to enter
the video game market, with manufactur-
ers hoping you’ll gamble $300 to try out
their latest offerings. For Japanese gaming fans
the choice of system becomes more complex,
because many companies act like different
beings in the U.S. and in Japan.

Many companies have entirely different
Japanese and U.S. games. In America, Konami
is almost exclusively known these days for
sports titles, with the occasional action game.

In Japan, shooters and simulation games such
as Tokimeki Memorial are the company’s great-
est hits. Take Williams and Bally/Midway.
Mortal Kombat continues to be big here, but
in Japan it’s never caught on and Williams is
much less known. Even a hit in both countries,
Doom , is published in Japan by Imagineer, a
company whose in-house titles consist of such
things as Pretty Fighter X. For every company
which is successful here and overseas, there are
many which are but shadows of their Japanese
presence, or wear entirely different masks.

System manufacturers are far from immune
to U.S. -Japan differences, and your prefer-
ences — import or domestic — could easily deter-
mine your choice. All the people in the U.S.
who own PC Engines could probably hang out
in this office right now, though in Japan the
first CD system has a steady following for
anime-based games. There aren’t as many
Neo*Geo owners here as in Japan, where
Neo*Geo owns hundreds of arcades (perhaps a
double-speed Neo*Geo CD, like the Japanese
CDZ, could help...?). The triangle for most
Americans is still Sony, Sega and Nintendo.

We all watched the PlayStation march in
and seemingly knock back Sega at the end of
1993. However, the PlayStation is marketed at
an audience older — and less familiar with
games — than most, concentrating on racing
and sports games, and anything with polygons.
Until Beyond the Beyond, Sony of America
avoided RPGs, the #1 love of manga gaming
fans. The Saturn made a much better impres-
sion in Japan with Virtua Fighter and more
permissive games; many great RPGs and simu-
lations are available for it. The truth is that in

Japan, the Super Famicom/Super NES is still
the primary platform. However, by not realizing
that this may not apply in the U.S., Nintendo
has allowed many of its greatest allies, such as
Enix and Hudson Soft, to abandon their U.S.
offices or go into hibernation waiting for the
Nintendo 64. For software developers, it’s a time
of chaos, mergers and cutbacks.

In the last ten years, though, American con-
sole games have come into their own. Japanese
games are receiving wider recognition, but
simultaneously American developers — mostly
driven by hardware — are improving. Look at the
Nintendo 64’s lineup of mostly-American devel-
opers such as Rare, and Sony’s reliance on
American developers such as Psygnosis. Even
SNK is soon to begin development in America.
Though I love manga gaming, we need good
games from whatever source. I still doubt that
many Japanese gamers are sitting up nights wor-
rying about when the next Madden is coming
out, but now it’s not quite as one-sided —
Americans wanting Japanese games — any more.

Audiences are sophisticated enough now to
understand which countries games come from;
there is more awareness of developers, and that
the games make the system. How the Big
Systems orient themselves — by using the devel-
opment strengths of each country — may just
determine who wins. Myself, I’m waiting for
some American developers to start producing
manga games of their own.

Jason Thompson
Editor

Send your letters and fan art to Game On! USA!
Address mail to: Game On! USA, c/o Viz
Communications, P.O. Box 77010, San
Francisco, G4 94107. Address e-mail to:
game_on @sirius. com.

Game On! USA

The Magazine of Electronic Manga Gaming
Volume 1, Issue 3

Publisher

Seiji Horibuchi

Editor-in-Chief
Satoru Fujii

Senior Editor

Trish Ledoux

Art Director

Yoshiyuki Higuchi

Editor

Jason Thompson

Associate Editor
Toshifumi Yoshida

Editorial Assistant
Kit Fox

Design and Layout

Ted Szeto

Layout Artist

Samuel Chew

Contributing Writers

Andy Chien
Micah Furuyama
Kevin Lindsey
Joseph Mooney
Shidoshi Naga
Dan Okada

Contributing Artist
Adam Burns

Special Thanks to

Toshifumi Yoshida
Kevin Lindsey
Sergei Lee Aish

Game On! Japan
Editorial Liaison

Kiminori Nakamura

Comics Editor
Annette Roman

SUPER STREET FIGHTER II: CAMMY

Story and Art by Masahiko Nakahira
Translated by James D. Hudnall and Lillian Olsen
Lettering and Touch-Up by Mary Kelleher

SAMURAI SHODOWN

Story by Kyoichi Nanatsuki
Art by Yuki Miyoshi

Translated by Fred Burke and Kaoru Hosaka
Lettering and Touch-Up by Mary Kelleher

FOR ADVERTISING RATES AND INFORMATION
CONTACT:

Sales Manager Bob Ryan
(413) 546-7073 Ext. 21

Game On! USA, ISSN 1087-8505, is published monthly
by Viz Communications, P.O. Box 77010, San Francisco,
CA 94107 (Internet: http://www.viz.com). One-year char-
ter subscriptions to Game On! USA are available in the
U.S. for $49.95 until July 30th, 1996. Regular subscription
rates in the U.S.: $58.00 for one year, $105.00 for two
years. In Canada & Mexico: $70.00 for one year, $129.00
for two years. All other countries: $138.00 for one year,
$251.00 for two years. ALL ORDERS US$ ONLY!
STREET FIGHTER II: CAMMY© CAPCOM 1991,
1993, 1994. SAMURAI SHODOWN© SNK 1995. SUB-
SCRIBERS/POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
Game On! USA, P.O. Box 77010, San Francisco, CA
94107. The Editor welcomes company product informa-
tion for all video games, comics and video game-related
merchandise. Such materials should be addressed to: Game
On! USA, P.O. Box 77010, San Francisco, CA 94107.
©1996 Viz Communications, Inc. All rights reserved;
reproduction in whole or in part without permission is pro-
hibited. Game On! USA is a trademark of Viz
Communications. FALSE GAME TIP OF THE
MONTH: Start a two-player game of Fatal Fury Real
Bout. Immediately both players must “taunt” one another
simultaneously. Simultaneously taunt again whenever the
timer is on a prime number (17, 31, etc.) When the match
times out, repeat. At the end of the third match both char-
acters will get in the mood and begin making rude com-
ments towards the people playing. printed in Canada

GAME ON! USA

Now Available in Canada!

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The Art of Entertainment

Fatal Fury , Samurai Shodown, Art of Fighting... SNK's
games have won fame with manga and anime fans as
well as gamers, and behind them is the backing of a com-
pany that was in arcades since the beginning

►

Fighter's History

S NK’s arcade ties are no mystery; the
founder, Eikichi Kawasaki, was origi-
nally an arcade operator owning sev-
eral sites in Japan. Kawasaki quickly
saw he could produce as well as dis-
tribute arcade games. In July 1978 he
founded the company under the official name
Shin Nihon Kikaku (later changed to SNK
Corporation), and established it in Osaka, Japan.

Before the Neo*Geo, SNK made dedicated
arcade games like many other publishers. SNK
made games throughout the ‘80s, in addition to
other arcade standbys such as crane machines.
The Rambo-Y\ke Ikari Warriors was one of their
best-known early games; others included Beast
Busters and Iron Tank. The company was a suc-
cess, both as an arcade chain and a software
developer. In 1986 SNK established their first
foreign office, SNK Corporation of America in
Torrance, California.

In Japan, where SNK owns several hundred
arcades, distribution and public awareness of
their games is second nature. In the States,
where the business philosophy is different and
independent operators are the rule, SNK owns
no arcades. Searching for a way to appeal to
arcade cabinet distributors (and, after them, the
arcade owners) in Spring 1990 SNK developed
the Neo*Geo MVS (Multiple Video System).

The New Neo*Geo

The MVS, with its distinctive red cabinet, was
SNK’s coup — as much a breakthrough in market-
ing as in technology. MVS machines are standups
containing multiple cartridge slots, typically four,
but sometimes six or two (for head-to-head play,
with an accompanying two screens). The idea was
that arcade owners could buy the basic MVS kit
and, for a much lower price than continually buy-
ing new cabinets, switch and shuffle new car-
tridges as they were released.

It worked. In 1990, the 16-bit Neo*Geo
MVS debuted, with colors, parallax scrolling
backgrounds, and scaling ability which were
phenomenal for its time. Even more impressive-
ly, MVS cartridges required only small adjust-
ments (being physically larger than normal) for
use in the Neo*Geo Home System. The system
was launched nearly simultaneously in Japan and
the States in early 1991. It boasted the exact
arcade experience, but the system’s high price
(over $500) and higher cartridge price (over
$200) kept away the majority of buyers.
However, especially in Japan, a user base was
established — a base (SNK estimates a generous
400-500,000) which seemed to live in a parallel
world to the 8-bit, then 16-bit, fights between
Sega and Nintendo.

In 1992 SNK Asia Ltd. opened in Hong
Kong, and in 1 994 SNK opened European
offices in London. The American division also
distributes games to the Central and South
American market. In the search for greatest
adaptability, SNK designed Neo*Geo games to
be universal, switching to the appropriate lan-
guage when played by either a Spanish, Japanese
or English machine (the English versions often
have more extensive changes, censoring the blood
in Samurai Shodown and the lack of bra support
in Fatal Fury). Despite this, SNK approves of
import games no more than any game publisher,
wary of pirate and bootleg versions.

Art of Fighting 3

Who Makes the Games?

SNK R&D takes place at the company head-
quarters in Osaka, Japan, employing over 300
people. It’s not surprising that the R&D team
that has produced more 2D fighting games than
anyone is headed by Takashi Nishiyama, who
developed Capcom’s Street Fighter.

SNK does not
have many external
software developers,
though among them
are several memorabl
names. ADK (also
known as Alpha
Denshi) developed
the World Heroes
games and others,

Taito produced Bust
Move , and third part
Data East ( Fighters'

History Dynamite ),

Sunsoft ( Galaxy
Fight), Sammy,

Hudson Soft, and
Technos Japan also pro- Samurai Shodown 3

duce titles, to name several. The “SNK look” is
not homogenous.

SNK is reacting in various ways to game-
play trends. While in Samurai Shodown 2 only
four characters had secret moves, games such as
Art of Fighting 3 (released in May) and Alpha
Denshi’s 330 MB Ninja Masters (a Samurai
Shodown-style swordfighting game, planned for
late summer) have more secret boss codes, hid-
den characters, and blood codes than before. In
Art of Fighting 3 the characters are more power-
ful when played on their birthdays. Shin Ou
Ken, released in May and developed by Saurus,
is the first SNK game to use rendered graphics
for its characters.

“With players demanding more codes and
secret characters, you keep adding more memo-

(f)

GAME ON! USA

on the Hanafuda card game (Genjuro). SS3 is
the latest in the series.

Fatal Fury

Fireballs, slum backgrounds, baseball
caps. ..the first fighting game for the
Neo*Geo in 1992 (it was in the arcades in
1991) set its own tone, being developed by
Takashi Nishiyama {Street Fighter) himself.
Fatal Fury is set in Southtown, crime-ridden,
location-inspecific city, where two brothers —

the States. SNK hopes the licensees will expand
its audience, without less people buying the
Neo*Geo home systems.

SNK’s future plans are in America and in
new technology. In 1995 SNK hired a select
group of American programmers, then sent them
to SNK Japan to learn the Neo*Geo development
tools. When they return to America, probably
sometime in 1997, they will form a bridge
between SNK Japan’s gaming experience and new
American technology: SGI, motion capture, poly-
gon graphics, digitized video. SNK R&D
America will give SNK a greater American — and
international — presence. A new arcade “simula-
tion” machine is being developed — a sit-down
cabinet which, with minor adjustments and car-
tridge-switching, will be able to switch between a
racing and a flying game, for example. Lastly, a
new hardware system is also in the works, said to
be accompanied by at least three 64-bit games.

To be simultaneously an arcade operator, a
game developer, and a hardware producer is to
know about amusement and entertainment.

SNK has a lot of experience to draw on for its
future plans in gaming. . .whatever they may be. 95

Samurai Shodown 3

First released in late 1992, Samurai
Shodown (Japanese title "Samurai Spirits"),
won a reputation as one of the bloodiest and
most varied fighting games yet. Set in 1788
Japan, it was also one of the most historical-
ly intricate games ever, featuring characters
based on archetypal or actual Japanese
heroes such as Yagyu Jubei Mitsuyoshi and
Hattori Hanzo, on manga characters
(Charlotte, from The Rose of Versailles) and

martial artists Terry and Andy Bogard — and
their friend, kickboxer Joe Higashi, set out to
avenge the death of Terry and Andy's father,
Jeff Bogard, at the hands of crime boss Geese
Howard. Eventually Geese is pushed out the
window of his skyscraper... but he returns in
four out of five other games in the series, all
but Fatal Fury 2. SNK promises that 1996's
Fatal Fury Real Bout is Geese's last appear-
ance in any fighting game.

Fatal Fury Special

Samurai Shodown 3

The Future of SNK

SNK has evolved through many years, but some
fear the Neo*Geo has stood still since its initial
release. Now the 32-bit systems can produce close
adaptations without the Neo*Geo’s proprietary
chips. Games such as King of Fighters ' 95 have
been licensed to the Sega Saturn in Japan, and are
scheduled for release on the Sony PlayStation in

Samurai Shodown

IMS

ry,” says Jorge Hicks, the game counselor known
as the Neo Messiah. (Hicks took over from the
past counselor, Chad Okada, the Game Lord.) As
SNK games improved, with more animation
frames and characters, they have pressed against
the limit of even the Neo # Geo’s once-enormous
330 MB RAM. The first group of Neo*Geo
games were in the 30-to-50 MB range, but by
1994 Samurai Shodown was already over
200 MegaBytes, and recent games are
"ight up to the limit. Experiments are
taking place in increasing cartridge
RAM to 400 or 500 MB ( Shin Ou
Ken squeezes in at 338 MB, 8 over
the usual limit).

The Neo # Geo CD home sys-
tem, first released in 1995, solves the
memory limit problem, and SNK hopes
it will bring them a new audience on other
merits as well. CDs are infinitely cheaper to man-
ufacture than cartridges, bringing game prices
down to a competitive level. However, the CD
format has one disadvantage. Neo*Geo games are
designed for the arcade, where memory access is
instantaneous. The original Neo*Geo CD used a
single-speed CD drive at a time when double-
speed has become standard, bringing some load-
ing times up to 40-50 seconds. Double-speed
Neo*Geo CDs have been released in Japan, but
no U.S. release is announced yet.

The CD format also frees Neo*Geo devel-
opers to make CD-only games, such as RPGs
(multiple-hour play times and arcades don’t mix),
trivia and puzzle games. A long-awaited Samurai
Shodown RPG ( Shinsetsu Samurai Spirits
Bushido Retsuderi), made by the same team as the
original fighting game, is tentatively scheduled
for July release.

Art of Fighting 3

GAME ON! USA

FEATURE: i'M

Fatal Fury Real Bout

Metal Slug

A VISIT TO SMK

to SNK's headquarters
for a talk with its vice
presidents and game
experts. By reporter
Kevin Lindsey

It's the gameplay.

That's the most frequent answer you get
when talking to the employees of SNK
Corporation of America.

Gameplay is the reason for their success
and the reason that the company has been
slow to move into the areas of 3D graphics
and motion capture.

"We have always had the end user in mind
when we make and market our games," Vice
President Bruce Tomiyama said. "We want
the punches to look like they're connecting
and if you go for a kick we want the character
to actually kick."

In the end, that's what defines game play
for SNK and most of the game playing public.

"It's nice to have a game that looks nice,
has a good graphics presentation and all of the
3D graphics, but if it doesn't give you a good
game then it's a fad," Tomiyama said. "The
underlying strength of any game is gameplay."

The company's United States headquar-
ters, in Torrance, California, is the main mar-
keting and sales warehouse for the Western
Hemisphere. A small office section out front
is there for the few executives, but the heart
of SNK is the warehouse. It's where the MVS
cartridges and the infamous candy apple red
Neo»Geo cabinets are shipped. You can also
find a small section for the home users

GAME

"We think that you'll see a nice blend of
the same type of game play and the nice
graphics in the next year," Tomiyama said.

One of the most anticipated games to fea
ture this new technology is Ninja Masters.

tucked into the larger warehouse.

SNK has never made the big move into
large scale production of home systems but
still offers its fans something for the house.

"Our home product, at least in America, is
geared towards the hard-core fan," Tomiyama
said. "We've been successful with that core
audience who is looking for the same game
they get in the arcade."

IT S GOOD TO BE THE MESSIAH

Jorge Hicks is one of SNK's core audience.

He bought the original cartridge system
before he started working for the company
and still uses it.

Now he's got the job of his dreams. Hicks
is the head of Marketing and Product Analysis
for SNK Corporation of America. In other
words, his job is to play with games.

"I play with the games and tell them what
I think," Hicks said. "It's a great job."

Of course that's not all that he does for
SNK; he also handles customers' questions
about the games and operates the web site.
For that reason he's called the "Neo
Messiah." Hicks handles 50-100 calls a day.

How did Hicks get the job? "Purely by
chance," he said with a grin. Chance and
years of game playing experience. When he
started playing games it was with the
Odyssey game system and then Colecovision
and finally Nintendo.

"I've played most of the systems out
there," Hicks said.

Hicks understands the company's insistent
refrain that game play has to be maintained.

"I think there is a stagnant environment
out there right now," Hicks said. "The presen-
tation has taken on a new dimension but the
games are really lagging. "

However, Hicks does still see a bright
future for the video game industry.

"I think it's all part of the learning curve," he
said. "Once the game designers catch up with
the technology, things will start to improve."

"Japan is being very secretive about this
game, in fact, we haven't even
got much information about it yet," Tomiyama
said. "But it's the one game
everyone is buzzing about."

THE FUTURE HOLDS POLYGONS
SNK is moving into the future with an eye on
putting motion capture and updated graphics
into widespread use over the next year. Shin
Ou Ken will be the first of SNK's new type of
games featuring computer graphics.

Exclusive Interview

SNK is well-known in America, but — as is almost always the case— it’s Japan,
specifically the company HQ in Osaka, where the actual games are made.
Within the headquarters of R&D, overseen by Takashi Nishiyama, developer of
Street Fighter , both the hardware and software futures of SNK and the Neo*Geo
are in the works. Game On! USA took the time for, if not industrial espionage, at
least some questions to Mr. ShoichiroTakatsu, Publicist for SNK Development

■

ROUND 1

Game € In! USA: To begin with... How
is SNK R&D divided up?

Takatsu: They’re divided into the Fatal
Fury group, the Samurai Shodown
group, etc. Each title has a team.

Game On! USA: Which is your all-time
best-selling game?

Shin Ou

8 GAME

Takatsu: If we had to pick one it’d proba-
bly be Fatal Fury. Probably around Fatal
Fury Special was when the popularity
was highest.

Game On! USA: Do you send out for
art, or are all your character designers
on staff? What about the artist who does
the Fatal Fury designs?

Takatsu: They’re all staff. However, their
names are secret.

Game On! USA: I notice that everybody
seems to say that when they talk about
their developers... or they all have pen
names.

Takatsu: Well, it’s a small
industry... there’s a lot of headhunting
going on from competition, so you really
have to keep your chief designers’ and
developers’ names secret. I think most
companies do the same: hiding names,
never publishing photos of these people.

Game On! USA: Its almost like
spy/espionage.

Takatsu: Well, it is industrial espionage.

Game On! USA: With all these 2D
fighting games, you have to come up
with new ideas. . .using the really large
characters in Art of Fighting, the line-
changing in FF, or the swords in SS.
What do you think the next step in mak-
ing a game interesting might be like?

Takatsu: I guess one of the reasons SS
was so popular was that it was one of the
first to incorporate weapons into a head-
to-head game. I think what we have to
consider for developing any game is: how
can we get the occasional video game
player to enjoy it, not just the fighting

Shin Ou Ken©Saurus

Ninja Masters ©SNK/ADK, Shin Ou Ken
©Saurus, Fatal Fury Real Bout ©SNK

Fatal Fury Real Bout

Ninja Masters

game freaks? That’s going to be the main consider-
ation for any game.

Game On! USA: Are you going to get into poly-
gon games?

Takatsu: Right now we don’t have any plans, but
following the trend of the times we probably will.

Game On! USA: Is the Neo*Geo equipped to han-
dle 3D, or will you have to do it through software?

Takatsu: I guess in the future the hardware will
have to make polygons possible. At the present
point, 2D games are the only thing we can do.

Our basic goal is to make the games that you play
in the arcade playable at home; most likely the top-
ics of how to make the Neo # Geo CD faster or how
to make it work with polygons will be what we’ll
address in the future.

§0UND|2 '

Game On! USA: Now, to change the topic a
bit... recently Capcom released Street Fighter
Alpha, There’s 1 hidden character in Alpha and a
playable character in Alpha Two named Dan.
There’s a rumor that he was made to look like a
SNK character... he looks like a mixture of Ryo
and Robert from AoF. Any comments?

Takatsu: He does look like him, yes... I think it’s a
good thing. It’s a sign to us saying that even
Capcom agrees this is a popular game. ( laughs )

Game On! USA: So you think the resemblance
is intentional?

Takatsu: Yes, I do. I’m not saying it’s a bad thing j
that other companies are paying a homage to us.

Game On! USA: After Art of Fighting 3, what
new releases do you have in the future?

Takatsu: There’s a lot. . .Ninja Masters, and
Samurai Shodown RPG. There’s Metal Slug , a
shooting game which is in the arcades already and
is soon to be released for the Neo*Geo.

Game On! USA: Is Ninja Masters set in the same
world as Samurai Shodown ?

Takatsu: No, it’s different... putting it in the same
world would get monotonous.

Game On! USA: With another swordfighting
game out, it makes me think that maybe there’s

going to be a swordfighting version of King of
Fighters ' 95 with the characters from Ninja
Masters and Samurai Spirits.

Takatsu: If the users want one, I’m sure there could be.

Game On! USA: About Samurai Shodown RPG —
is it going to be a Dragon Warrior-Xy\>z game
where you go around looking for party members
and building up your statistics, then fight a boss
at the end?

Takatsu: Yes, it’s something like that, where you
gather up the Samurai Shodown characters and play
them as if they were role-playing characters.

Game On! USA: Seeing as it’s an RPG, are the
characters going to get into group battles like
they do in normal RPGs, or is it going to have
some other form of battle system?

Takatsu: There’s both, actually. The standard battle
is like a regular RPG where everyone gets together
to fight the monsters they encounter. But it’s going
to have an action sequence — not quite the kind of
fighting you’d see in Samurai Shodown the game,
but definitely an action sequence. In Japan, it’s
coming out in July.

Game On! USA: Any plans for release in the
United States?

Takatsu: At this time, we don’t know.

R OUND 3

Game On! USA: Recently, you’ve begun releasing
games for the Saturn and PlayStation. What’s on
the horizon for those systems?

Takatsu: King of Fighters \ 95 came out for the
Saturn in March, It’ll be on the PlayStation in
May, followed by Samurai Shodown 3 on June 28,
and then Fatal Fury Real Bout. For the Saturn
we’re doing the same titles, plus Fatal Fury 3.

Game On! USA: The Saturn version of King of
Fighters 95 requires a ROM cartridge as well as a
CD to keep load times down. Is the PlayStation
fast enough to handle everything with just a CD?

Takatsu: Well, it’s not as fast as the Saturn ver-
sion... but the PlayStation will feature a play mode
that’s not offered in the Sega release.

Game On! USA: How about the next generation
of the SNK home machine?

Takatsu: I can’t say there aren’t any plans, since we
have to make games, and the game machines evolve
with the times. But I can’t say anything concrete.

Game On! USA: About anime versions of SNK’s
games... what’s next, or is there a “next?” I talked
to Saiji Tanda at Studio Gl, Masami Obari’s stu-
dio, a little while back, and they said they were
hoping to do anime for the Gowcaizer game,
which is a fighting game featuring Obari charac-
ter designs. Is there any news in that?

Takatsu: At present I can’t speak of any plans. [As
of this time, the Voltage Fighter Gowcaizer anima-
tion has been announced and is expected in September
in Japan — Ed.]

Game On! USA: What audience would you say
you aim at? In a previous interview with Capcom,
they said that Street Fighter //was targeted at the
U.S. market. Being that SNK owns a great num-
ber of arcades in Japan, would you say you think
of the Japanese market first?

Takatsu: The Japanese market is important to us,
of course, but we think games should be playable
anywhere in the world.

Game On! USA: Now for the hardest question,
that we always end every interview with... do you
have any message to the readers in the U.S.?

Takatsu: SNK will, in the coming times, make
games playable by all game players using the new
technologies as they become available. So please,
please don’t abandon us. ( laugh s) 95

Samurai Shodown RPG

GAME ON! USA

King of
Fighters '94

ut of

SNK games have never lacked for anime and manga

adaptations. A recent issue of Gamest magazine con-

tains manga based gn fvrld Heroes 2, Galaxy Fight,

the

King of Fighters '94 ... six SNK-based titles in all, includ-

ing the SNK Game Parody Anthology, which features

skits such as Mai Shiranui going to Neo*Geo World.

Fatal Fury ggp^gj ShodOWJl

Samurai Shodown has under-
gone various multimedia adapta-
tions, including several comics,
many humorous. Nakoruru is
not only an artist's favorite, but a
common outfit for otaku idols
such as Shibari Iko. In 1993
Hobby Japan Comics released a
comic anthology with stories by
various authors.

In 1994 Fuji TV and NAS pro-
duced the 80-minute Samurai
Shodown anime, directed by

Hiroshi
Ishiodori and
released in the
States by A.D.
Vision.
However,
game loyalty
cuts both
ways; fans
flamed the

Fighting 3 adaptation for dropping the origi-
nal story, one of the most histor-
ically complex of any game, and
making the characters into res-
urrected "Saint Soldiers" seek-
ing revenge on Amakusa, who
betrayed them 100 years ago.

Fatal Fury

Fatal Fury is popular both for
anime and radio-like "audio

10 GAME ON! USA

story CDs." The first two 50-
minute Fatal Fury animated TV
specials (from NAS and Fuji TV),
1 994 s Fatal Fury: Legend of
the Hungry Wolf and 1995's
Fatal Fury 2: The New Battle ,
were directed by Hiroshi
Fukutomi. For 1995's 100-
minute Fatal Fury: The Motion
Picture , however, character
designer Masami Obari took
over the direction. Obari
[Bubblegum Crisis) not only
made Mai Shiranui into the
crazily underdressed heroine
she is today; he made Joe,

Terry and the other men into
ideals of masculine physique,
after hours of Classical
research— studying nudes.

Fatal Fury: The Motion
Picture features an original plot
that is half fighting game, half
Indiana Jones or Armor of
God The brooding Terry Bogard
and company fight the megalo-
maniacal (aren't they all?) villain
Laocorn, who wants to gain
divine powers. The three
movies have been released in
the U.S. by Viz Video.

The best known Fatal Fury
comic creator is the artist
known as Mondo, who in 1993
produced several volumes of
Fatal Fury 2 comics for Studio

45-minute-long show (subtitle:
"Battle Spirits") reportedly had
low-quality animation and the
fight scenes weren't especially
dramatic; the saga is yet to be
properly told.

The King of Fighters

King of Fighters '94 manga in a
sharp-lined but appealingly clear
style by Ryo Takamisaki runs in
Gamest to this day, and has
been collected in four graphic
novels. The story focuses more
on the all-female fighting team
and less on big names such as
Terry Bogard— though RuGal
appears as the antagonist.
Evidently the release of King of
Fighters '95 wasn't enough to
make this story obsolete.

Style. Mondo's scratchy, busy
style spares neither blood,
sweat, nor Zip-A-Tone; he now
draws Fatal Fury Special
monthly in Gamest , using char-
acter designs clearly derived
from the movie. But it's not the
only series; one Fatal Fury spin-
off is Geese Howard Gaiden
("Geese Howard Side Story"), a
story centered on the unkillable
crime boss, his thugs, and those
(such as Blue Mary) who dare
oppose him.

Art of Fighting

The first Art of Fighting story, in
1992, featured writer Zenji Ishii
and artist Etsuya Amajishi.
Amajishi drew the story in a
deliberate, heavily-muscled way
with guns, tanks and hun-
dred-hand strikes.

Amajishi took over the
scripting for the Art of
Fighting 2 manga, the lat-
est episode in the series,
which was collected in
two graphic novels in
1994.

Art of Fighting's 1 995
video version, from the
company Star Child, is the
least well-known of SNK
anime and has not been
released in the states. The

Samurai
Shodown

Samurai Shodown/Fatal Fury ©SNK/Fuji TV/NAS,

Art of Fighting 3 ©SNK, King of Fighters ‘94 ©SNK 1994/Ryo Takamisaki

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IN STORES MAY 28!

newsline

The latest gaming reports from Game On!

If it's coming from Japan to the States, it has to travel along the Newsline.

Zero Divide 2:

The Secret Wish

The sequel to the PlayStation cyborg battle
game released here by Time Warner
Interactive has been announced and will prob-
ably appear in the States. Counting the boss

Square off and fight:

Tobal No.1

RPG maker Square's polygon fighting game,
Tobal No. 7, will be out for the PlayStation in
July. Square's first combat game, the develop-
ment team are staff who worked on Tekken
and Virtua Fighter, then left to create a new
team at Square.

The game's biggest draw is character
designs by Akira Toriyama ( Dragon Ball) The
setting is the year 2048, in one of the regular
fighting tournaments on frontier planet Tobal.
Combatants include the human (or nearly so)
Chuji-Wu, Molly, Epon and Fei; the robot
Horn; and the aliens Oliems, Eel and Muhu.

The game incorporates 360° movement,
not rolling out of the way as in Toshinden,
but complete movement in any direction.
There are many grabbing moves, more inter-
active than in most games. The jump heights
and throwbacks are realistic, and your attack
buttons determine your attack level, with high
punches and medium or low kicks.

12 GAME ON! USA

characters, there are four new playable char-
acters in Zero Divide 2, plus new tech-
niques (when hanging off the edge of the
ring, you can actually move hand-over-hand
along the edge) and the ability to lose your
exoskeleton (which looks extremely gross).
The frame rate has been upped to 60 fps.
Summer release in Japan, from Zoom.

Samurai Shodown RPG

More screen shots have arrived of the
much-awaited Neo*Geo CD RPG! There are
two scenarios or storylines in the game;
players can choose from a variety of the
game's characters to complete it, based
either on their samurai skills or sheer person-
al preference (say, a party full of girls). The
game's animal companions, such as
Mamaha and Poppy, also count as charac-
ters. For release in July from SNK.

Capcom Hazards Resident Evil,

Mega Man X Sequels

Biohazard 2 (which would be Resident Evil 2 in the U.S.)
has been announced by Capcom Japan, who will also be
producing Rockman X 4 (the Japanese title of Mega Man X 4) for
the PlayStation. Resident Evil 2 is a sure port, while Mega Man X 4
will probably be if it takes advantage of 32-bit capacities instead of
being a 16-bit upgrade. Meanwhile, Street Fighter Alpha 2 is still
steadily expected for the U.S. PlayStation in the 4th Quarter 1996.

S2 p
0) LL

<3 2
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CD
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Over Blood

Over Blood is a new Japanese
title from Riverhill Soft whose game
setting are reminescent of Resident
Over Blood takes place in an abandoned
research laboratory, with four undergrou
els and 80 rooms. The main character,
awakes from cold sleep (seems al
Laura's Enemy Zero predicament... lot of that
going around lately) to find he has no memory
of his life and is about to freeze as the power
fails. After the first trap, the game
includes puzzles, zombies, and
other people who may be allies or
enemies (including "Peepo," your
little robot partner). Your controls let
you move forward, left and right,
turn around, dash, and (a new fea-
ture) jump. It was released June 28.

3 2
> - 1
b d
o

Dragon Force ©Sega Enterprises, Ltd. 1996, Enemy Zero ©Warp, Arc the Lad ll©Sony Computer
Entertainment, Inc., Der Langrisser 3 ©NCS, Albert Odyssey Gaiden ©1996 SunSoft

The Hero becomes the
Hunted: Arc the Lad II

Sony intends to release Arc the Lad as
its second official PlayStation RPG, so if
it is successful, the sequel may also
appear in the States. Arc the Lad II from
Sony Computer Entertainment is sched-
uled for Summer release in Japan,
almost a year after the appearance of the
original. Probably the largest reason for
U.S. release would be its strict continua-
tion of the storyline— and the myster-
ies— of Arc the Lad.

Arc the Lad ends with Arc, the main
character, as a fugitive from the law. In
Arc the Lad II you begin the game as Elk,
a 15-year-old hunter who is searching for
Arc. When eventually you encounter Arc
and his crew, their strength may be
determined by your saved memory card
from ATL. Arc the Lad II will have at least
five times as much animated movie
footage as the original, and as far as
completion time, will have at least three
times as much combat alone (sometimes
clues or storyline elements will be
revealed during combat). As in ATL , the
music is performed by the London
Philharmonic Orchestra.

Albert Odyssey Gaiden:'
Legend of Eldean # /|

Another Saturn sequel to a Super Famicom
simulation RPG, the new Albert Odyssey has
less military strategy and more RPG elements,
and is an entirely new game with the same
characters. The two-part story is complex and
surrounded by subplots, as you gather allies
(including dragon-like and bird-like humanoids)
and develop your party. The characters will be
voiced by professional voice-actors (a large
part of the Japanese publicity push for the
game). SunSoft, who released the game in
May in Japan, will release it in the States
sometime before Christmas this year.

per Langrisser 3

The first two Langrisser games were released
for the Sega Mega Drive; this latest is expected
in July in Japan, from NCS Messiah. Der
Langrisser 3 is a military simulation RPG with
battles in a true 3D view, instead of the usual
hexagons. The Saturn game begins as the
Goddess Luceris asks you questions, your
answers to which set up your statistics for the game. The character designer is Satoshi
Urushibara, character designer for the notorious Plastic Little and Legend of Lemnear,
as well as some Super Famicom games. Various anime voice-actors do the voices.

Dragon Force

Neither all RPG nor all simulation, Working
Designs (Sega of America's primary Japanese-
conversion people these days) will be releas-
ing this hard-to-classify entry in July or August
for Saturn. Choosing from eight warlords, you
follow your alter ego on his/her quest to take
over the land, narrated with colorful animated
sequences as you encounter the other protag-
onists. Entering combat, you deploy troops,
priests, monsters and mecha on a "horizon
line" perspective. The graphics should bring
the frequently-dry simulation genre to life.

Enemy Zero

The developer/publish-
er, Warp, has sided
with Sega over Sony, |
and Enemy Zero is
scheduled for Fall
release. The Saturn
game takes up 4 CDs
(most of the first CD is the opening, plus a "practice
mode" for the action parts of the game).

The plot is similar to Alien. Laura (the design from D,
though a different character) wakes up from cold sleep on
a spaceship and is instantly threatened by an unknown
being on the other side of a sealed door. She is one of a
crew of seven headed for Earth, but something has
attacked the ship, forcing Laura to roam its halls in first-
person perspective solving puzzles and fighting in third-
person action scenes. Laura has a video phone to talk to
the other crew members, and a radar to judge when the
rarely-seen alien is nearby.

GAME ON! USA

The latest gaming reports from Game On!

If it’s coming from Japan to the States, it has to travel along the Newsline.

Guilty Gear

2D fighting games continue to be hits in Japan.

This dark-future weapons fighter for
PlayStation, made by Arc Systemworks in the
SNK tradition, uses several new techniques such
as a "gamble attack" which makes the upper
part of your body invincible while leaving your
lower body vulnerable to attack. The character
designs are even crazier — a pirate girl with a
huge axe, a dwarf with a giant butcher knife, and
a mad scientist with a giant scalpel, to name a
few (one character controls shadows to make his own shadow into a blade). As in Shin Ou Ken or
Killer Instinct the characters are rendered but 2D. Expect it this Fall.

Ninjas and Rappers: Jaleco Plots Game 'Ports

After announcing that they will not be releasing the PlayStation game
Shokendo , Jaleco has scheduled two other possible Japanese conversions
(in addition to the seemingly eternally delayed DreamKnighti One is Funky
Gatsuman , a game derived from the manga by artist Syufo from Digital Comics.
The main character is a rap star, M.C. A.T.. Another title is Jajamaru The title
character, an old Jaleco mascot revived for the occasion, is a ninja who wan-
ders a 3D castle fighting traditional Japanese ghosts and spirits, depicted with
manga-style designs (some looking very Urusei Yatsura-Wke . . .) . Both titles
are very early in development, especially Funky Gatsuman.

Full Moon Rising: Lunar:
The Director's Cut

The Sega CD Lunar series has always had a
large base of fans, with its
proudly anime-based story and
designs. Lunar: Silver Star
Story scheduled for late 1996
release in Japan (following sev-
eral delays from an August release date),
takes the game to the Saturn. It is an
expanded version of the first Lunar game,
with new storylines and characters, not to
mention retouched graphics. Working
Designs has announced they will release it in
the U.S. in Spring 1997 as Lunar: The
Director's Cut

Virtua Fighter 2 wins
Japan Software Awards

The 4th annual Japan Software Awards just
announced its 1995 winners in the Business,
Education and Entertainment categories, with
Virtua Fighter 2 taking first place in the
Entertainment division.

The award, on the grounds of the 60
frames per second movement rate and
arcade perfection, was delivered with the
news that since Dec. 1, 1995 over 1.5 million
Virtua Fighter II copies have been sold in
Japan. The other four winners were as follows:
Derby Stallion 3 (Super Famicom), Jumping
Flash! (PlayStation), Aquanauts Holiday
(PlayStation) and Dungeon of Wonder II
(Super Famicom).

Arcadeline

Calling all quarters! Overseas titles that may hit home.

Sengoku Blade

In Japan, this shooter also known as Sengoku Ace Episode II (the
sequel to Sengoku Ace) has arrived; this time it's a side-scrolling
game featuring flying humans instead of conventional ships. Your
characters (a total of five) include a Samurai-armored robot, a bat-
tle-hardened monk and two female warriors, each accompanied by
animals, spirits and other guardians as you gain power-ups. From
Psikyo.

GAME ON! USA

Lunar © Studio Alex/Game Arts/Kadokawa/Character designs by Toshiyuki Kobuoka, Virtua
Fighter 2 © Sega, Guilty Gear © Arc System Works, Ltd., Jajamaru ©1996 Jaleco,

Ultraman Battle ©Tsuburaya Production/Bandai»Megumi Tachikawa/Kodansha/ABC/Denshu/TMS/Tomy, Speed R acer ©Tatsunoko Productions/Tomy,
Fist of the North Star ©Buronson/Tetsuo Hara/Shueisha/Fuji TV/Toei Animation, Tenchi Muyo; No Need for School © AlC/Pioneer LDC/Xing

Cels and CD-ROMs

Upcoming Japanese game releases based on anime and manga.

Ultraman Battle

After years of 16-bit games, mostly super
deformed, a serious polygon fighting game
based on the Ultraman TV series is on its way
for the Saturn) The Ultra Warriors (not just
one!) and their monstrous foes clash in a ren-
dered 3D cityscape. (Hopefully the buildings,
such as the Eiffel Tower, can be demolished.)

It'll be up to the developers to decide which TV
characters (out of about 30) will appear in the
game, so they've taken input from Japanese
players on the favorites. The game (from Bandai)
will fill a cartridge and CD, and is expected in
December.

Speed Racer

Johnny Depp may be playing Speed Racer in the
upcoming movie, but now a PlayStation Speed
Racer racing game, Mach GoGoGo! (the original
Japanese title), will let everyone play the role of
Speed. Like the hero of the classic anime TV
series, you drive the Mach Five in races against
20 cars, using the same button pad as in the orig-
inal series. Using the car's seven special powers, run underwater, jump over other
cars, and send out the Gizmo bird rocket to ensure victory. An original animation
sequence opens the game. September release, from Tomy.

Fist oft the North Star

Fist of the North Star ; the (in)famously violent postapocalyp-
tic manga series, has appeared from Banpresto as an
adventure game on PlayStation following an earlier
Saturn version. The story is original, and heavily inter-
spersed with battles in the Yu Yu Hakusho format; you
enter complex commands at the correct time, and ani-
mation sequences (reportedly from over 3000 frames)
appear on the screen showing the results on you and
your opponent. A one-on-one mode is included. For the
first time since the SNES game, you can play Ken, the
mighty Fist, and bloodily explode the heads of your
opponents. Release date July 25.

We Don't Need No LS
Education: Tenchi Muyo: No
Need For School

Tenchi Muyo (No Need for Tenchi) has been
one of the anime most widely adapted into
games, beginning with PC CD-ROMs and
working its way through the home systems.

Tenchi Muyd: No Need for School, an all-
new game, is due out this summer for the PlayStation from developer Xing. An
adventure/simulation game (of the "interactive comic" variety), it takes place in
Tenchi's little-seen school, with all the usual characters wearing school uniforms. In
addition, three original characters rear their heads— Sakaki, Ibara, and Kinoko, a bounty
hunter from outer space.

Game On! Japan's
Top Ten Games

This top ten list is based on sales,
overall popularity, and industry
expectations compiled by Game
On! Japan, one of the leading cross
platform game magazines in Japan.
The following list appeared in its
June 1996 issue.

#1 — Super Mario RPG

Super Famicom/Nintendo/RPG
A very high-action, well-balanced RPG using Donkey
Kong Country-style rendering techniques, this RPG
introduced a new genre to the character (and, possi-
bly, non-RPG-oriented American fans). The American
version came out in May. With this and Mario 64,
those goombas just getting more and more 3D.

#2 — Derby Stallion '96

Super Famicom/Ascii/Simulation
This much-hyped horse racing simulation sold out the
day it was released. Japanese games normally only
have one print run, but Derby Stallion '96 was so suc-
cessful that it will be re-released. Ascii is better
known for King's Field.

#3 — Tekken 2

Sony PlayStation/Namco/Fighting
PlayStation games don't tend to sell out in Japan, but
Tekken 2 sunk to 35% availability, to delay both Japanese
fans and American import buyers. Few games have
received more space in Japanese magazines, with
enormous move lists and every character in the book.

#4— Biohazard

Sony PlayStation/Capcom/'Survival Horror'

Capcom's frightening first polygon game had a mixed
reaction in Japan, but sales have been strong, and a
sequel has been announced. Perhaps the genre will
become more popular on consoles. Severed hands
and FMV bullet wounds were censored from the
American opening video.

#5 — Kirby Super Deluxe

Super Famicom/Nintendo/Action
Six mini-games within one, including a two-player
head-to-head mode, made this latest Kirby a success.
(For an example of countries' marketing differences,
consider the U.S. Kirby games' ads which portray the
pink-marshmallow hero as a tough guy you don't
want to mess with.)

#6 — Gundam ver. 2.0
Sony PlayStation/Bandai/Action

#7 — Realistic Powerful Pro Baseball

Super Famicom/Konami/Sports

#8 — Super Family Stadium Five

Super Famicom/Namco/Sports

#9 — King of Fighters '95
Sega Saturn/SNK/Fighting

# 1 0 — Panzer Dragoon Zwei

Sega Saturn/Sega/Shooting Action

GAME ON! USA

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JAP^NE^E POPsQjhrURE
BY VIZ COMM UNICATIONS

The Web foothold of
Japanese pop culture
has arrived! j -pop.com
is the most detailed site
yet to cover the growing popu-
larity of Japanese comics, anima-
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news and imports are all here;
we update each section monthly
or sooner to provide access to
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SUPER
FIGHTER II:

STREET
CAM MY

The story so far...

Working for MI-6 (British Intelligence) might be too much for most 19-year-olds... but
not Cammy! Her first mission for the Special Operations Unit finds her at Battleland,
a little-known island in the Mediterranean dominated by the Battle Rave tournament.
Working with U.S. Air Force Major Guile, her mission is to join the tournament,
climbing as high in the fighting circuit as she can. Cammy has reason to worry, as
five of the last Battle Rave champions mysteriously disappeared, and four resur-
faced as suicidal terrorists.

While Guile investigates the mansion of a Battle Rave sponsor, Sang Froid,
Cammy is challenged to a fight with the down-and-dirty Madross Brothers. But for
amnesiac Cammy, no fight is as frightening as the recurring memory that she's
been to Battleland before!

Name: Sang Froid
Identity: Sponsor
of Battle Rave
Notes: A multimil-
lionaire and fighting
connoisseur, he has
suspected ties to
the terrorists.

Name: Diego
Identity: Friend of Guile
Notes: One of the five champions who van-
ished after participating in the Battle Rave.

SAMURAI
S H O D O W N

The story so far...

The year is 1787, the place is Japan. Plague and famine sweep the Tenmei Era, and
the swordswoman Nakoruru, attuned to the forces of nature, senses the supernat-
ural Dark Kingdom is to blame. Seeking to combat the darkness, she finds an ally in
the swaggering samurai Haohmaru.

Haohmaru brings his own trouble, however. He is pursued by the ninja Nagiri,
who accuses him of killing her father. Haohmaru and Nakoruru escape Nagiri, but
come across a new mystery when a dying ninja leaves them a scroll. The scroll is a
pledge from the land's five most powerful warlords to attack the capitals, Edo and
Osaka, which would leave thousands more people dead.

A stranger then reveals himself as Hattori Hanzo, a government spy. It is his
mission to stop the warlords, and he tries to win Haohmaru and Nakoruru's help.
But they are interrupted by a sound from the night as monsters — the Dark
Kingdom's lackeys — attack to regain the scroll...

Name: Hattori Hanzo
Identity: Shogunate
Ninja

Notes: In order to win
Haohmaru and
Nakoruru's trust and
prevent war, he has
done the most danger-
ous thing a ninja can
do— exposed his face.

Name: Nagiri

Identity: Ninja Assassin

Notes: If her father was Haohmaru 's friend,

why does she want Haohmaru dead?

1 7 GAME ON! USA

Story &N5
English A
Lettering

For the purposes of purniTSSTTryf

SUPER STREET
FIGHTER II

FIGHT THREE
BATTLE RAUE

PART TWO

piajiyn by JAMES D. HUDNALL & LILLIAN OLSEN
-up by MARY KELLEHER

listauwthe artwork in this publication is in reverse from the original Japanese version.

22 GAME ON! USA

GAME ON! USA

YOO'PB OUT
OF /OUR
/VUND! WHAT
IF SOME. EVIL
COUNTR/
SETS AHOLD
OF THIS
THINO.'r

THE WHOLE
WORLDS
/MILITAR/
BALANCE
WOULD
COLLAPSE!

AH, /ES. . . AS
THE "WORLDS
POLICE," THE
A/MERICAN
/WLITARy
/MUST
STOP IT.

26 GAME ON! USA

NO /MISTAKE
ABOUT IT.
THIS PLACE
/MEANS
SO/METHINO
TO /ME!

g : : :

*!v'

'i'lvwMy*-

■ViViVi -

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I (bUESS
YOUR /V\IND
CONTROL
ISNT VERY

oepenoable.

Hey.<

EACH OF
YOU TAKE
ONE SHOT
AT MAJOR
GUILE.

GAME ON! USA

NOT GOOD.
IF SHE

REGAINS HER
MEMORY, SHE
WILL REVEAL
THE SECRET
OF OUR
TECH-
NOLOGY.

SHALL WE
ORDER
SECURITY TO
EXECUTE
HER?

W-WA IT.'
WE COULD
USE GRAND.

SHE'S

/MOVING.' THE
DETERIORA-
TION /MUST
HAVE

PROGRESSED.

NO,

THE VO-
CORDBR!

GAME ON! USA

GAME ON! USA 45

ITS A
PIT/. . .

I WAS GOING
TO SUBJECT
YOU TO
m NO

CONTROl

v.v.

XWvX

ANV

have you

SERVE WE
AS ONE

of /v\y

SOLVERS.

'Saw

.V.V.J

OH,

WELL

GAME ON! USA

****•:

W/.VA

SS!

Cz^/V/VCz/V

[iSJBi

fgt,

£u

•Un^l

GAME ON! USA 51

WHAT DO

you /MEAN,

A VIRTUE'??

I KNOW ALL
OF SANG
FROID'S
TECHNIQUES.
I VON T NEED
HELP.

TO BE CONTINUED

COMING THIS OCTOBER

FAST, FURIOUS AND FINALLY IN A BOX SET'

Special three-tape set of fast
and furious martial arts
fighting by Japanese action
director Masami Obari!

• MEET TERRY BOGARD, HIS SILVER-
HAIRED BROTHER ANDY, THAI KICK-
BOXER JOE HIGASHI AND THEIR QUEST
FOR VENGEANCE AGAINST THE
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FURY: LEGEND OF THE HUNGRY |
WOLF! • MEET THE UNBEATABLE
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BATTLE THREE:
NIGHTMARE

story by KYOICHI NANATSUKI
Art by YUKI MIVOSHI

English Adaptation by FRED BURKE & KAORU HOSAKA
Lettering & Touch-up by MARY KELLEHER

v.v.;

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mozui

IN THE
NAME
OF BENI
GUMO,

I WILL
AVENGE
YOU!

:»>w 5

A//A/J0

Vs..

IT...!

THIS IS THE
SAME DARK
SPIRIT THAT
SURROUNDS
EDO...

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THAT'S

PRAISE

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lil

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HIKIROKU!

WE'LL

RETREAT-

FOR

Mz*y/

GAME ON! USA

THE

SHIRANUI

FORCE...

A GROUP
OF BEINGS
WHO ARE-
AND ARE
NOT-
HU/MAN.

' ;

;XvXvXv!v

WX'Xj

v.vXv!

THE NAME
OF THE /MASTER-
MIND OF THIS
CONSPIRACy IS
MADOU SHIRANUI.
HIS VERy NAME
WILL /MAKE
yOUR BLOOD
CURDLE...

NAME IS
MAOOU
SHIRANUI!

■II

•»>»

WHAT'S

THE

MATTER?

I THOUGHT
I HEARD
SOME THING...
IT SOUNDED
LIKE

SOMEONE -

.vXv-XvXv

E/ARTHLINSS
WHO RISE
AGAINST MB
- I WILL
VP.AG you
ALL INTO
THE

OF THIS
PETTT
WORLD!

THIS I
SWEAR--
FOR I
/W\ THE
SORCERER

/rvipyx/

A//A/P0...
SWAt 0P
A//G#T-

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To play Roger or Alex:

Get to the third match on the
third round, then let your health
dwindle to around 5% and then
beat your opponent. In the next
round you'll be playing against
either Roger or Alex. Beat either
one and then you'll be able to
select either of them. Press a
punch button to select Roger, or
a kick button to select Alex.

Big Head Mode

Press and hold down select until the
match starts when you pick your character.
You should be bigger than the norm (2). To
be really big and grotesque-looking hold
down select again while starting a new
match with the same character (3).

Kawaii!

First Person "Punch-Out" Perspective

Hold down LI and L2 (first player) or R1 and R2
(second player) as you are selecting your character
and keep holding down until the match starts. Your
body will be a green grid and you'll play in the first
person perspective.

FULL MOTION

Tekken 2

System: Sony PlayStation

Developer Namco
Publisher: Namco

Availability: Now (Japan):

September 1996 (U.S.)

T ekken was one of the first 3D fighting
games to come out in the arcades. The
graphics for this game were phenomenal
but it was not widely accepted by the 2D
diehards. When Tekken came out for the
PlayStation, it quickly became one of the top
PlayStation games, fighting or otherwise. Now
the much awaited sequel has finally arrived.

The opening sequence shows all the char-
acters in the game, including Devil Kazuya and
Angel. With an intro as good as Tekken 2s you
know that the game itself should be nothing
short of fantastic. How are the graphics different
from Tekken ? First of all, the different light
sourcing and the texture mapped floors give the
game a whole new appearance. A few of the
sounds such as the "crunches" you hear as you
do the multi-part throws have been modified
from the arcade version. The only other thing is
that the characters have a diminished polygon
count, thus making them appear smaller than
other versions. I wouldn't go so far as to call
this a drawback because this diminished polygon
count does not take anything away from game-
play although Kuma looks ridiculously small.

The layout of the game is radically different
from its Tekken predecessors. It seems the pro-
grammers opted not to include the traditional
Galaga game at loadup; I guess they figured
that there's enough in the game itself to keep
one occupied for hours. I remember the count-
less hours it took me trying to finish the Galaga
game in the first Tekken just to get the blue uni-
formed Kazuya.

There are many different options to choose
from: arcade mode, versus mode (you and your
opponent can choose your health settings from
70% all the way to 130%), team battle mode,
time attack mode, survival mode and practice
mode. If you're looking for an excellent 3D fight-
ing game then look no further.

Micah Furuyama

The Last Word: In the past, there were
very few games that could come dose to
being as good as their arcade counter-
parts. This game is adually an improve-
ment on the arcade version. From its Full
Motion Video endings for all the charac-
ters. to its improved light sourcing and
sound, this game should not be over-
looked by the serious fighting game fan.

GAME ON! USA

PIT FIGHTER

Robo Pit

System: Sony PlayStation

Developer: Altron

Publisher: Altron (Japan): THQ (U.S.)

Availability: Now (Japan): 3rd Quarter 1996 (U.S.)

FIGHT

ROBOT LIST
ROBOT WAKING
INFORMATION
VS

MEMORY CARD
PASSWORD
CONFIG

INFORMAT iOM

NAME RB RED
RANK lOl/OOOO
ARM PARTS
R -PUNCH 1 -066%
L-PUNCH 1 -066%

R obo Pit is a unique game developed by
Altron. The game is best described as
Jumping Flash meets Cybersled (oh, how
I try to forget!). You start off the game by assem-
bling your robot from an assortment of body
parts and the choice of 2 basic weapons. After
assembling a robot, it's ready to enter the fight-
ing robot circuit. Your robot has to start at the
bottom of the circuit and must battle your way up
through the rankings by taking on the other 100
fighting robots. Each fight takes place in a 3D
arena (yes, there are ring outs) with some of the
arenas featuring multiple platforms you can jump
on. There are 30 different weapons you can
obtain throughout the game to add to your arse-
nal after you defeat each fighter. Once you get
the first place ranking you must then take on the
champion of the circuit to be crowned the new
robot fighting champion.

Robo Pit has solid gameplay but the game is
not very challenging. Once you obtain a powerful
weapon it's pretty much a breeze throughout the
game. The controls are tight, with a left and right
attack along with a guard and jump button. Also,
you can sidestep your robot with the right and
left buttons. And what is a fighting game without
super moves? The super moves are executed by
pressing the 2 left or right buttons together.

Robo Pit comes with a 2 player split screen
mode where you and a friend can duke it out.

The split screen mode shows no sign of slow-
down and not that much loss in resolution.

On the graphic side, Robo Pit features
decent looking arenas. Some of them look
dithered and grainy while others are not so bad.
The scaling is smooth. The game for the most
part runs at a good frame rate, though after
defeating your opponent there is some slight
slowdown. As for the robots, they all have a cute
"super-deformed" look to them which is one of
the most appealing things in the game.

Joseph Mooney

I %

/ \

The Last Word: Robo Pit is a fun
game that I would recommend to
people who like 3D shooter fighting
games. While not the most challeng-
ing game I have ever played, it was
still fun, especially because of all the
different super deformed robots you
can make.

Once you have beaten the circuit

\ \ ^

champion you will be able to play

him in the 2 player mode.

GAME ON! USA

The Last Word: Overall, this is a good sequel to a great game. The program-
mers very cleverly used both 2D and 3D power of the Saturn to create the awe-
some atmosphere in PDZ. They have focused on the gameplay to increase the
replay value of this game and have succeeded.

STAGES OF
GROWTH

Panzer Dragoon II Zwei

System: Sega Saturn

Developer: Andromeda
Publisher: Sega
Availability: Now (U.S.)

M any 3D shooter fans have probably

played and liked Panzer Dragoon, one
of the most fantastic first generation
Saturn games of 1995. The sequel has a lot to
offer in terms of gameplay.

The game starts with a FMV intro showing
how a little boy was forced to take vengeance
upon the enemy organization. As soon as you
start playing, you'll notice that you are on a baby
dragon, running on the ground instead of flying!
Unlike Panzer Dragoon, where you have a
matured dragon all the time, you start with a
baby dragon that grows as you progress through
the game. There are total of 5 different stages of
the dragon and how much it grows depends on
your scores. Another addition to the gameplay is
the Berserk mode for the dragon. On the screen,
above the energy bar, there is a second bar that
charges up as you destroy enemies. Whenever
the bar turns green, you can press a button to
turn your dragon into the berserk mode; the drag-
on will continuously lock and shoot whatever
appears on the screen until the berserk bar is
empty.

In later episodes, you can choose different
routes to complete a stage. For instance, in the
middle of episode two, you can either fight the
enemies on the ground or in the air. Although the
game is still on rails, the ability to choose routes
and slightly more freedom of movement really
adds to the enjoyment. Furthermore, if you com-
plete the game with certain rankings, a
"Pandora's Box" option will show up in the
option menu. It is basically a debug mode which
enable you to select levels or dragons, increase
your energy or berserk bar, choose difficulty set-
tings and more.

The graphics in this game are astounding,
running at a solid 30fps, although there are some
understandable slowdowns when a lot of objects
with special effects appear on the screen at
once. Everything is beautifully texture mapped;
more colors are used and more details are drawn
while there is less pixelization than PD.
Furthermore, the bosses are amazingly large and
well animated. The boss in the forest stage occu-
pies almost the full screen when it is up close to
you, yet moves smoothly at a very fast pace.

One other thing worth noting is the water effect.
It looks a lot more realistic than PD, especially
when you see the boss moving under the water.

The best way to describe the effect and the
overall graphics of Panzer Dragoon II Zwei is
"You have to see it to believe it!" Unfortunately,
the music is a letdown. Instead of fantasy music,
there is a more warlike, upbeat style of music in
PDZ. It's not terrible, but not quite as good as PD
or as I expected.

GAME ON! USA

Andy Chien

STUCK IN
SECOND GEAR

Tokyo Highway Battle

System: Sony PlayStation

Developer: Bullet Proof Software
Publisher: Jaleco
Availability: Now (U.S.)

T okyo Highway Battle has a very interesting
premise; it's a racing game with courses
based on actual Japanese highways.
Unfortunately, while that part of the game is at
least different and impressive, it goes downhill
from there.

THB includes three main modes of play:
practice race, versus computer, and scenario (you
against the computer on a busy highway). The
problem comes in that vs. computer and scenario
seem almost pointless. There's no on-screen indi-
cator of what place you are in, and the computer
opponent flies by you never to be seen again
(except in the distance), so it ends up feeling
more like a race against the clock, and not an
opponent. Had THB been such a game, and been
designed to be one long course instead of laps, it
might have worked better. Also, the whole time
you're racing, you have the strange feeling that
you should really be going faster than you seem
to be. I couldn't quite place my finger on why
exactly, but it was definitely there (it also doesn't
help to have both manual and automatic have the
same top speed before modification).

Your car can be modified in ten different
areas, each one providing a wide variety of differ-
ent options you can mix and combine to attempt
at the best possible performance. While this is a
great feature and allows players to have much
more control over their car, it will more than likely
be intimidating for most players. Only certain
parts will affect specific cars in positive ways, so
it's a long game of trial and error. This feature
seemed really out of place here, and would have
been better left to games dealing with profes-
sional racing, such as Nascar or Indy 500.

The graphics are, again, average. Some
parts show a nice polish to them (little things like
the heat joints in the road), while others seemed
a tad unfinished, with a result of looking quite
similar to many racers before it. Two views are
presented, but the first person one rides so low
to the ground that it's useless.

Shidoshi Naga

The Last Word: I expect more from 32-bit racing
games, and while Tokyo Highway Battle isn’t totally
bad. it’s not really that good either. There is a wide
variety of other racing games out there, many of
which would be better choices for a purchase, save
maybe for the die-hard racing fan.

GAME ON! USA

Namco's Tekken 2 has received a lot of
publicity ; and huge sales in Japan. But what
inspired Kazuya's hellhound heart, the ten-hit
combos, and the rest? The editors of Game
On!, our Japanese sister magazine, recently
visited Namco R&D at their headquarters for
an afternoon of conversation.

Game On! met with seven Namco devel-
opers: Saito, responsible for system pro-
gramming; Mori, designer of household
CD-ROMS; Abe, coordinator and planner
for V.S.; Tsuchiya, motion division;
Kobota, a former designer now in the
movie division; and programmers Yamato
and Ito. (Company secrecy prevents reveal-
ing their full names or faces.) All had
input into what made Tekken a true “any-
thing-goes” fighting game.

Game On!: Namco has one of the biggest
development teams... which division cre-
ated Tekken ?

Namco: There’s a single development divi-
sion, which splits up for different pro-
jects... Regarding Tekken , the same division
that started it up did the port to the home
console unit. The team name is the
“People who are working on Tekken or
“People of Tekken .” (laughs)

Game On!: When did Tekken come out?

Namco: The idea came out November
1993, and the actual game came out in
December of 1994. The board was fin-
ished around August, but other things
took a lot of time including the hard-

ware... we couldn’t get it organized enough
so it took another four months.

Game On!: That was really fast... how
long did it take you to do Tekken 2?

Namco: Tekken 2 took about seven
months, being released in August of 1993,
and in October Ver. B came out. It’s prob-
ably one of the fastest in the industry, but
we do have a lot of people here. About 20
or 23 people are working on it around the
clock, and about 30 people work on it
from time to time. I think we have about
twice the amount of manpower of other
companies.

Game On!: When and how was the idea
of Tekken born?

Namco: Well, I could tell you, if it was
off the record... but I guess that when it
comes to combat video games, Namco is
pretty much behind everybody. We had
the hardware for polygons and the capa-
bility for home video games. It just took
awhile for everything to fall into place
so we could release one. We had a few
polygon racing games before, but Tekken
was the first time we used polygons to
depict people

GAME ON! USA

1996 Namco Ltd.

Game On!: Is Tekken the first game to use
System 11?

Namco: We develop hardware at the same time
as software, so even though we do run into hard-
ships sometimes, we put out Tekken at the same
time as System 1 1 . System 1 1 itself was devel-
oped for miniaturization so it could be put into
various systems, such as home units. Honestly,
System 1 1 is two boards. All the calculations and
displays are Sony’s board, and input, memory
and management are Namco’s board. It’s a joint
collaboration with Sony’s SCE. Sony made their
board for home use, and we made ours for
industry use.

Game On!: At the time of development, did
you take into account other games?

Namco: Well, I guess you’d have to say we took
notice of Virtua Fighter. . . in the steps of making
Tekken, we took out the parts we didn’t like in
Virtua Fighter , such as falling out of the ring.

Not “un-fun” parts, per se, but parts we
would’ve done differently.

Game On!: Where would you say Tekken s orig-
inality lies?

Namco: I think we would have to say “Jack.” At
the beginning, it was Nina or Kazuya who was
the soul, the cool part, of the game, but once
Jack came out, our ideas had changed. We
thought to ourselves, “This is it!” At the begin-
ning, Jack was going to be like King, but we
thought it was a little unbalanced. . .it was just a
weird character, so we were sort of at a loss.

After this point, we decided to make all the
characters very manga-like, keeping in mind that
the characters are the most important thing.

The reason Jack’s form is kind of strange is
that the software technology couldn’t keep up, so
we couldn’t really change his proportions. There
were a couple of physical problems, so at the
beginning people were going “Hey! Is that fair?”
Basically, “anything goes” became the founda-
tions of Tekken. Of course, some things that
won’t go just won’t go.

Game On!: What was Namco’s first 3D poly-
gon game? ^

Namco: We started making it about ten years
ago, but put it out in 1989. It was called System
One or System Two. Something new like
Winning Run is System 2 1 . System One is
something like Dragon Spirit.

Game On!: Why did you decide to go with
the four-button control system for Tekken ?

Namco: We went around and around about
this. Six buttons were just too many, especially
for hitting the buttons around at random. We
decided to simplify. We thought, since we’re
doing 3D, why not just do a button corre-
sponding to each limb? Right leg, left leg... We
even had the idea “Hey, why not put sensors
on the player’s body for each limb?” Well, that
went right out the window, but we stuck with
the four-button controls.

We wanted to have a lot of different
moves; something more complex than a stan-
dard two-button game, but something that’s
easy for beginners to use. The two-button sys-
tems, we think, require too much joystick use
to make up for the lack of buttons. We thought
with the four-button system that even if you
pushed buttons together at random you could
make combinations.

Game On!: The ten-hit combos are really
hard to do. Is there a timing to that?

Namco: Oh, we’re just being mean, (laughs)
Actually, compared to other games, there’s no
basic “rule” to the timing. It’s all rhythm.

Game On!: Did you use any actual existing
martial arts for the basis of Tekken ?

Namco: We took actual moves as reference and
arranged them in a very gamelike way. We
made sure of what was important visually, so
we watched a lot of pro wrestling, boxing, kung
fu action, aikido, swordfighting, ninjitsu, box-
ing, karate, pro wrestling, and manga.

Game On!: What’s the favorite character of
the development teams?

Namco: The most popular character with us is
Jack. I guess with the unpopular characters,
the number of their techniques doesn’t
increase. I mean, no one wants to play that
character, so why give them more moves? Since
popular characters’ moves increase, you can tell
which characters are popular in Tekken 2. For
instance, Law had the really cool somersault,
so somersaults are easier to do in Tekken 2.

Paul is a “hit ‘em hard with one blow” charac-
ter, so he has moves where you strike really
hard once. Nina would be the kind of charac-
ter where you want to throw out a bunch of
moves in combination.

In Tekken, Heihachi was the strongest
character, but we couldn’t have him be that
powerful in Tekken 2. We kept him as strong as
we could, while bringing the other characters
up to his level with new techniques.

Game On!: Which character has the strongest
fan response?

Namco: It’d have to be Kazuya. One person on
the Internet who saw the ending of Tekken 2
wrote back saying “How dare you do that to
my dear Kazuya.” (laughs) Otherwise, Law’s
popular, and Kuma. Oh yes, on Valentine’s
Day, several popular characters received
Valentine’s Day chocolates from girls. On
“White Day” [a March 1 5th Japanese holiday
where men give presents to women — Ed) , we
sent them back CDs.

Game On!: How were the characters created
in Tekken , and what kind of design techniques
do you use?

Namco: Basically, we use models. We don’t
draw them, like with 2D games. The people
who make the wireframes and models say “let’s
do this type of character,” so we use their input
ahead of time. There’s no actual person who
drew the characters. They just sort of took
shape.

Game On!: What can you tell us about Tekken 3?

Namco: We’re thinking, “if we could do this,
it’d be cool... if we could do that, it’d be bet-
ter.” That’s about it. (laughs)

Game On!: What do you see for the future of
3D games for Namco?

Namco: We’d like to incorporate a lot of
things. Martial arts itself is a varying field, so
you can almost have anything; it really is
“anything goes.” We want to get to the point
where you say “God, is that fair?” or “That’s
really foul!” We want to make something
that’s almost unbelievable. Of course, it might
actually happen. . .

Oh yeah, and we want to add Pepsi-Man
[a Japanese advertising character — Ed) to our
games. Of course, we might have a hard time
getting the rights, (laughs) 93

GAME ON! USA

over

a few. Currently, no fighting game is complete
without a female fighter or two.

Chun Li: I’d like to have a word with Rose’s agent.
How she managed to negotiate a contract that
allowed her to wear such a stylish albeit impractical
costume (have you ever tried fighting in heels?) is
beyond me. Either the heads at Capcom
■ make a few changes in my contract or you
won’t be seeing me in Street Fighter III I
still can’t believe how many female fighters out
k there are wearing G-strings as a direct result of
my influence. Unbelievable!

Y uko Aso, Chun Li, Mai Shiranui,

Michelle Chang and Jill Valentine. . . all
are video game characters who have
marked the near absurd level of popu-
larity of females in video games. There’s no deny-
ing how significant these characters have become
since the bygone days when their roles were rele- A
gated to the “princess in need of rescuing.”

But the truth is, women don’t often
receive the type of “exposure” they deserve. B
No, instead the “babe in video games” has
become a tired cliche, with no visible end in
sight. With the typical “video babe character” mired
in fantasy and almost laughable roles, it’s litde won-
der that there are probably fewer girls playing video
games than those featured as characters in the
games themselves. Since it’s a tough job in itself to
track down the limited numbers of the females in
the game playing community, we’ve taken this
opportunity to talk to a select few of these female
video game characters instead.

We’ve opted to start with one of
the all time most endeared female char-
acters in video games. In fact, she was the Jm
first — none other than Street Fighter IIs m

Chun Li. We managed to get a few words
from her following her work in Alpha 2.

We’ve included a segment from the action plat-
form genre character, Yuko Aso, of the Valis series.
Inevitably, the inflammatory issue of costumes
^ came up once again, yet she met it with the

grace one would expect of a veteran video
B game character.

W Game On!: Yuko, you successfully man-
aged to carve yourself a niche in the tra-
f W ditionally male-dominated area of action
^ platform games. Regarding your choice of
well-known outfits; how do you feel about this

trend you started so long ago, that refuses

\ to surrender its popularity?

Yuko: Well, I wore an armored brassiere and
a mini-skirt; not exactly the most protective of
fighting gear in a hack-and-slash world populated
by demons and other sword wielding villains.
Perhaps the only “protection” those costumes gave
me was their distraction value, which tended to
have more of an effect on the players than it did
on my foes. I might add that I originally started
with the traditional school girl’s “sailor” outfit,
which worked for me at the time... but I shudder
to think about the trend I started.

Game On!: It’s widely acknowledged that
your role in Street Fighter //really opened
the flood gates for female roles in video
games. How does it feel to be the orig-
inal in a manner of speaking? >

Chun Li: Well first of all, I’d /
like to ask you whether you '

find the slightest thing I /

wrong with my attire. . . I fr

Game On!: Uhhh. No,
actually. . .

Chun Li: I

m sure

they did! So what happened the
moment I changed into something a little
more practical as sparring attire?

Chun Li: That’s right! Most of them complained.
Something about not being cute enough. Well,
they fixed that up didn’t they! Made me re-record
my voice overs (make them “cuter” they said) and
even made me re-shoot all that footage in my

Game On!: Even so, there’s no denying you
paved the way for a tradition of strong female

Chun Li: Oh, so then I suppose the com-
mon belief is that all Interpol agents dress
like this then?

Game On!: Not at all! But it is the general
impression that most players have always liked
your original costume. It’s something of a trade-
mark signature.

original “Chinese acrobat” costume for Street
Fighter Alpha 2. It wasn’t something they could
do with a simple palette swap, after all.

Game On!: I see your point, but it was your
popularity, due partially to your appearance, that
set things in motion for all those others: Mai,
Michelle, Sarah, Cammy and Rose to name just

characters in video games.

Yuko: Yes, it’s good to know when you’ve had a
positive influence. Unfortunately, those same roles
have lapsed a bit, but with new characters such as
Jill Valentine of Resident Evil and Lara Croft of
Tomb Raider , they’re becoming a bit more
admirable and respectable. I can only hope that

GAME ON! USA

GAME ON! USA 79

known more for our appearances than our abilities
and strengths.

Game On!: A valid point, but at least you were
depicted as having a high level of competence.

Now Chris on the other hand...

Jill: ( Laughs ) True! Chris was completely clueless at
times, even though he never had to say anything
particularly stupid. But then, how many times did
he have to be rescued?

Game On!: Well, twice actually. About the same
number of times you had to be rescued by Barry.

Jill: And there you have it folks; Resident Evil, the
game for equal opportunity gamers {laughs). So long
as you allow my actions to speak in place of my
words — and yes, you can make fun of my lines (I
didn’t write them) — it’s quite evident that I’m one
task force gal you don’t want to mix it up with!

That’s all the time we have for this segment of
Game Over! But we’ll be back in
thirty with more commentary both on and from the
women in video games you know and love. ^5

this current trend continues, even if it means mov-
ing from women with swords to gals with guns.

Speaking of Jill Valentine, we managed to track her
down in the wake of her success in Resident Evil

Game On!: Resident Evil has enjoyed a huge
amount of popularity. As a new idol of millions of
gamers, is there anything you’d like
to add regarding the current role of
female characters in video games?

Jill: ( Groans ) All right, I’ll
admit my presence may have
had a positive effect on the
world of video games, but
some of the lines those
writers drafted for me were
utter dogs! Does anyone
have an idea as to how
many times I had to say
things along the lines of “I
don’t know anything!”, “I
don’t know what’s happen-
ing,” or “What’s going on? I
don’t understand?” Well,
neither do I. I’m amazed I
never had to say anything
like, “What do I know?
I’m just a girl! Teehee!”

It’s amazing that despite
all this alleged
“progress,” we are still
depicted as being

roughly 2 anil a hall steps beyond. . .

alt .ant

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You asked for it, and here it
is... Game On! USA intro-
duces its codes & tips sec-
tion, ON! Command! Game
On! USA also looks back at
E3, the year's biggest gaming
convention, where Japan's
Game On! and your own edi-
tors meet to look at the next
year in manga gaming. We
schmooze with Japanese
developers and present an
interview with Glams, whose
space simulations are on their
way to the U.S. High tech and
hot tips in Issue #4!

Feature Presentation

IT'S HIP TO BE SQUARE

They started with Nintendo, and
now the PlayStation is about to
see their next efforts — when peo-
ple think Japanese RPGs, more
often than not they think of devel-
oper/publisher Square. With the
backing of popular artists, and
expert programmers, Square's
Final Fantasy has been the top-
selling 16-bit PPG — but why
aren't titles just as popular being
ported to the States ? Visit the
new offices of Square L.A. and
find out how Hollywood technolo-
gy is being used in Final Fantasy
VII . . .and new games developed
just for the U.S. !

32-bit Manga

What began in mystery ends
in blood. . .

BATTLE ARENA TOSHINDEN

The most secret fighting tour-
nament ever begins! Blood-
specked samurai Eiji, whip-
wielding Sofia, and the rest are
dragged in by the
Organization's claws.

SAMURAI SHODOWN

Galford, Haohmaru and
Nakoruru have briefly thwart-
ed the Dark Kingdom. But
Tenmei Era
Japan is
about to
become the
Era of

Darkness as
Madou
Shiran ui's
magic leads
to a fight
from which
one of them will not return!

All This...

Newsline: The Latest Updates from America and Japan

PC Interface: Manga gaming on your computer

Play Tests: Reviews of Jumping Flash 2, Floating Runner &

Saturn games

...And Much, Much More!

80 GAME ON! USA

Samurai Shodown ©Kyoichi Nanatsuki/ Yuki Miyoshi/ SNK 1995, Toshinden, ©Takara;
Characters ©Tsukasa Kotobuki, Final Fantasy VII ©1996 Square, Galventure ©Glams

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